The eBay Stores Experience frequently asked questions

1. Why should I opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience?
2. When will I be required to move my store to the new version?
3. What elements of my eBay Store will change if I opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience?
4. What changes are being made to the custom pages?
5. Will themes be different in the new eBay Stores Experience?
   
6. If I decide to opt-out of the new eBay Stores Experience and retain my current store, will the new theme and store colors still display in my old store?
   
7. Are all store sellers eligible to opt in/opt out of this feature?
   
8. Is the "eBay categories and product finder" option supported in the left navigation settings in the new eBay Stores Experience?
   
9. What if my customized store has elements that appear broken?
   

Technical frequently asked questions

10. Why does my store look broken in preview?
11. I opted in, but my store is completely broken! Can you help me?
12. What structural/HTML/layout changes did eBay make to the page?
13. What precautions do I need to take while writing CSS for the new store design?
14. What precautions do I need to take while writing JS for the new store design?
15. How can I fix my page?
    
16. Why is the left navigation text overflowing or misaligned in preview or opt-in?
    
17. Why do some store tags appear as text in the store header in preview or opt-in?
    
18. Why do some of the components in my page appear in the wrong place or overlap with other components in preview or opt-in?
    
19. What is the maximum width of the page in the new store design?
    
20. Why does the slideshow/filmstrip look different?
    
21. Can I still use anchor tags in the new store design?
    
22. Where can I find the eBay Site Interference Policy?
    

The eBay Stores Experience frequently asked questions

1. Why should I opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience?
   The new eBay Stores Experience offers many key advantages:
   • Improved in-store search ability and merchandise suggestions for misspellings and low results.
   • Improved look and feel
   • The eBay Stores Experience gives your store a face lift by bringing the design more in line with the rest of eBay, which makes it less confusing to buyers when they land in your store.
   • We’ve enhanced our promotion boxes to better showcase your items, for instance, the new promotion box filmstrip.
   • We’ve updated the eBay themes so you can set up a professional-looking store without using HTML and start selling right away.
   • Improved buyer features
   • Buyers now can refine their search preferences within your store to make it easier to find exactly what they’re looking for.
   • Our new Gallery View showcases your items to make it easier for buyers to see what your store has in stock.
   • Future flexibility
   • With this new version, we can continue to build enhancements to eBay Stores quickly.
   
   
2. When will I be required to move my store to the new version?
   We anticipate everyone will move to the new eBay Stores Experience within a few months. We’ll communicate with you regularly, and you can be sure we’ll support you through this move.
   
   We understand that you might not be interested in making changes during critical times for your business, but you don’t need to make changes right now. However, we think it would be beneficial to make this change as soon as possible. Here’s why.
   • Moving to the new Store Experience now gives you time to adjust your store design before the opt-in period ends.
   • o If you see problems with customizations during the preview, you have the flexibility to retain your current store appearance as it is, and have a few months to work with your designer to revise your design. However, if your newly customized store works well, we want you to be able to take advantage of the improvements as early as possible.
   
   
3. What elements of my eBay Store will change if I opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience?
   Your storefront pages, in-store search results, About Me page, and any custom pages will be part of the new experience. All other store marketing features such as the promotional flyer, seller email marketing, Markdown Manager, HTML builder, logos and branding will not be affected and will continue to work as usual.
   
   
4. What changes are being made to the custom pages?
   After you opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience, all of your custom pages will be in the new format and will have the following changes:
   • Any item lists displayed in your custom pages will be conducted through our new finding experience.
   • Item showcase and promotion box criteria will now be aligned with the new finding experience.
   • You will have two new sort options: Price + shipping highest first, and Price + shipping lowest first.
   
   
5. Will themes be different in the new eBay Stores Experience?
   A whole new palette of themes replaces the old themes when you opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience. You’ll notice that the corresponding theme to your current theme offers a fresher look and feel.
   • The new themes feature updated colors, fonts, and background images. No changes will be made to the logo images.
   • When you opt-in, your new theme is reflected only in your storefront, in-store search results, About Me, and custom pages.
   • If you opt-out of the new eBay Stores Experience, your store will revert to your old theme.
   
   
6. If I decide to opt-out of the new eBay Stores Experience and retain my current store, will the new theme and store colors still display in my old store?
   No. The new theme and store colors are applied only to the features that are converted to the new Stores Experience.
   • If you opt-out, you will revert to your old store’s design and customizations.
   • If you opt-in to and make edits to your store colors or customizations, those changes will remain even if you revert to your old store by opting-out.
   
   
7. Are all store sellers eligible to opt in/opt out of this feature?
   No. Only store sellers who currently have an active store or stores that are re-opened within 30 days after cancelling have the opportunity to opt-in or opt-out. All new subscribers to eBay Stores will automatically be part of the new eBay Stores Experience and are not eligible to opt-out.
   
   
8. Is the "eBay categories and product finder" option supported in the left navigation settings in the new eBay Stores Experience?
   No. Only "eBay Categories" and "Store Categories" options are supported in the new Stores Experience. If you have selected the "eBay categories and product finders" before opting-in, your left navigation settings will default to the "eBay categories" option.
   
   
9. What if my customized store has elements that appear broken?
   Please read the Technical frequently asked questions to troubleshoot and identify elements that may have caused problems with your customizations. We recommend that you continue to use your existing store while you optimize the customization for the new eBay Stores Experience.
   • You might have used CSS extensively, which is against our Site Interference Policy. Please see how to resolve this issue in the Technical frequently asked questions.
   • You may want to move to the new eBay Stores Experience and use an eBay template to keep your store open for business. You can then work with on your customizations with your designer to make sure your design works well and looks great.
   
   

Technical frequently asked questions

10. Why does my store look broken in preview?
    You may have customization issues that are causing your store to appear broken. Do not opt-in to the new eBay Stores Experience now, and refer to the JavaScript and CSS section to troubleshoot your customizations.
    
    When your store design looks good in preview, you can then opt-in and move your store to the new design.
    
    
11. I opted in, but my store is completely broken! Can you help me?
    Opt-out on the Manage My Store page in My eBay to revert to your original store.
    
    The most likely reason that your storefront appears broken is CSS or JavaScript issues. Please refer to the CSS/JS section below to find out how to make some quick fixes.
    
    We no longer support any customizations that conflict with our Site Interference Policy. Some typical conflicts include taking over the eBay global header or changing the appearance of the in-store search items list. If your design attempts to manipulate those elements, your store might not function properly, and you will need to remove the problematic customizations. To read more about our Site Interference Policy, see <http://pages.ebay.com.sg/help/policies/everyone-interference.html>
    
    Most customizations done within the bounds of our policy should not break. However, if you use CSS or JavaScript extensively, you may need to optimize your code for the new eBay Stores Experience.
    
    
12. What structural/HTML/layout changes did eBay make to the page?
    We’ve strived to keep the page layout similar to the previous stores page layout. However, we do NOT use the same HTML IDs or CSS class names in the new eBay Stores Experience.
    • The new left navigation width has increased from 170px to 210px.
    • In the Gallery View for in-store search results, we now have three items per row instead of two. We may update the Gallery View in the future, and potentially increase the number of items per row, the dimensions of the images, and item description placement. Changes to in-store search elements should not break your customizations if you have followed our Site Interference Policy.
    
    
13. What precautions do I need to take while writing CSS for the new store design?
    CSS is a great way to personalize or customize your eBay Store, but please keep in mind that you should always abide by eBay Site Interference Policy when using CSS:
    • Do not externalize CSS.
    • Do not use ID-based or structural CSS rules, since they may change in our later releases.
    • Do not use eBay-defined CSS classes, since these may change in our later releases.
    
    
14. What precautions do I need to take while writing JS for the new store design?
    Just like the CSS, please make sure your JS does not rely on the eBay-specific IDs or classes, and don’t overlay on the structure of the page. Please limit the JS to customizing only your own HTML.
    
    
15. How can I fix my page?
    We greatly appreciate your efforts to fix a few small things to get your pages looking great. Here are a few things that can help you:
    • Identify ID-based and structural CSS and change it to class-name based CSS.
    • Remove any JS you used in your customization or limit JS to customize your own HTML, not the eBay specific components/elements.
    • Play with the relative/absolute positioning to fix page layout
    
    
16. Why is the left navigation text overflowing or misaligned in preview or opt-in?
    We have changed the width of our left navigation from 170px to 210px. If you have CSS that assumes the left navigation width to be 170 px, your page could be affected.
    
    
17. Why do some store tags appear as text in the store header in preview or opt-in?
    We have restricted the use of some store tags (specifically the item specific stores tags) in the eBay Stores header. Using these restricted stores tags in the header will result in the store tag appearing as text. The following tags will be rendered as text in the store header: {eBayStoresItemList}, {eBayStoresItemShowcase}, eBayStoresItem}, {eBayStoresItemDetail} and {eBayPromo}. Please remove these tags from the header.
    
    
18. Why do some of the components in my page appear in the wrong place or overlap with other components when I preview or opt-in?
    If you use 'absolute' to position the components of your page, then those components can appear out of position and overlap onto other parts of your page.
    
    
19. What is the maximum width of the page when I preview or opt-in?
    We will continue to maintain a flexible width in the new eBay Stores Experience just as we do today.
    
    
20. Why does the slideshow/filmstrip look different in the new store design
    In the current store pages, the items in the slideshow promotion box scroll automatically. In the new pages, the items can be viewed by have to clicking the left/right arrows.
    • The number of items displayed varies based on the location of the promo box:
    • If you place your mouse over an item in a filmstrip, a visual preview and details of that item and is shown. If the item has a Gallery Image, a larger image is displayed.
    • If you use store tags to create filmstrip promotion boxes and place the promo boxes next to each other, your page could stretch up to their width.
    
    
21. Can I still use anchor tags in the new store design?
    Yes, you can still use anchor tags in your HTML.
    
    
22. Where can I find the eBay Site Interference Policy?
    http://pages.ebay.com.sg/help/policies/everyone-interference.html
    
    

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